This is being described as the internet equivalent of the Green Cross Code on road safety. This neatly continues the use of the road safety metaphor adopted by the House of Lords inquiry into personal internet security which I took part in and which reported in 2007. The idea of better IT citizenship training was also a concept developed there.

Given the early age at which children are now IT-literate and regular users of the internet, this proposal is long overdue. Predictably, some teachers are already complaining that there is too much in the curriculum already, but unless school education is relevant to modern needs it is all the more likely that young people will be alienated from the classroom. And in any event they face real dangers on the internet, unless they are warned, just as much as kids face real dangers on the roads.